(Sermon by Pastor Michael D. Schultz 03/11/07)

INTRODUCTION:

For the sixty centuries that people have now lived in God’s world, it is still very safe to say that no one can say they have come to know all there is to know about God.  Of the dozens of places you can turn in God’s book to bear that out, Romans 11 is still as good as any of them: Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!  Till I get to heaven and I know God as well as he knows me, I’m going to have to be content to know that I can’t know all there is to know about God.  We should seriously stop calling him to account for things which these puny minds of ours can’t figure out about him and let God be God.

However, in the meanwhile, it would be very wise to concern ourselves with something about God which is no mystery at all, something he wants us to know about him better than anything we might know about ourselves.  He does not want anyone to perish.  He wants everyone to come to repentance.  From where we’re sitting, we could almost say that God has a one-track mind in that regard.  Take all the information you have in the Bible and all the occurrences you see taking place around you and through it all, God is saying, “Don’t draw your own conclusions.  Change your thinking so that it lines up with how I say things are.”

God Is Always Pointing Us Toward Repentance

Whether it’s the daily headlines around the world or everything that’s racing around in your head that would end up in your own diary or journal if you kept one, God is always pointing us toward repentance.

A case in point would be the conversation Jesus had with some people who were hanging out with him as he was making his way to Jerusalem for the last time.  They were talking current events, telling Jesus about an atrocity that had taken place, people cut down by Roman soldiers while they were worshiping, human blood and the blood of sacrificial animals mingled on the ground, terrorism at church.  Why would something like that happen?

Sounds like their current events weren’t much different than ours.  Terrorism as a form of war is certainly not new, but it seems much more prevalent, and every time it happens, it’s pretty easy to catch ourselves wondering why.  People in foreign, non-Christian lands blowing each other up – are we to suppose that God is especially fed up with those people and he’s letting them blast each other to hell?  Jesus gave the answer.  No, they are no more sinful than anyone else, or than any of us.  That’s not why they died.

Or what about things that seem to make no sense, random accidents like buildings that collapse or tidal waves or tornadoes?  Eighteen people died when a tower in Jerusalem came tumbling down.  Every other day we hear of similar things.  Are we to suppose that those victims somehow had it coming?  God does control all things, including exactly how long every person will live and when they’ll die, but it cannot be said that such victims had it coming to them more than anyone else or more than any of us.  That’s not why they died.

What did Jesus say was the case?  But unless you repent, you too will come to a similar, sudden, tragic end.  God nowhere encourages us to try to figure out why everything happens, especially his judgments about life and death.  Deaths that we hear about, especially when we don’t know the people, can just as easily be God’s patience running out and a person’s time of grace ending in condemnation as they can be God’s promise being kept and a believer in Jesus being taken home to heaven.  Why God does what he does or allows what he allows is God’s business, but God is always pointing us toward repentance.  He does that by showing us how to interpret the times.

What I can’t know about the headlines needs to translate into what I have to know about me.  Current events in the light of God’s Word tell me that I need to repent today, to change whatever thinking there is in my head that I haven’t come to a tragic end because I’m somehow better than someone else, that God is dealing with me on a more favorable level because of who I am.  I deserve a tragic end.  More than anyone I know I deserve destruction.  But Jesus was heading to Jerusalem to address that.

Only one thing results in a person perishing.  It’s not being a worse sinner than someone else because there is no such thing as a worse sinner.  It’s not a divorce that God disapproves of or drug abuse, experimental or otherwise.  It’s not proud arrogance or shameful laziness.  Jesus paid with his life for all of that.  It’s unbelief, not trusting how damning God says your guilt is, not despairing of your own goodness, and not believing that only in Jesus are you acceptable to God.

As you evaluate what you see and hear, think about things God’s way.  I see this sad event, I pray that God will help the victims and their families but I also think – Lord, forgive me my sins. I hear about that tragedy and am heartbroken over it but I also think – God, have mercy on me a sinner.  Keep me in your grace and always ready to meet you.  And believe this – God has been merciful to you.  He’s shown his grace to you in slaughtering the Lamb of God to give you eternal life.  Wrapped in the holiness of Jesus you are ready to meet God.

To bring all this home, Jesus closed with a story about a fig tree, so, of course, we’ll localize that and call it a peach tree.  Why are you and I still here?  What does God not want us to miss?  What would he have me be thinking about when I drive home from church today, other than, “Church is over and now I’ve got things to do”?  An answer for that is found in the question, “Where’s the fruit?”  Along with wanting us to always trust in Jesus so that we do not end up in hell, God also very much wants us to live for him.  Patiently and earnestly he’s looking for that. 

Does he see fruit, a bumper crop of loving your enemies, truly honoring your parents, counting yourself blessed when you suffer injustices, quietly helping those in need, seeking God’s kingdom first without worrying about the other things.  Or is he heading to the shed to fetch an axe? 

My friends, Jesus did not live without sinning, die for your sins, rise from the dead and return to heaven victorious only to kick up his feet and watch how things go from there.  He is the gardener in the parable.  Right now in heaven he is pleading for you, constantly talking to his Father in your behalf.  “Father, I know you don’t see the fruit you’re looking for.  But give me time with them. I died for them.  You adopted them.  I’m sending the Holy Spirit to them. They’ll produce.  They will.  I’ll see to it.”

Why are you and I still here?  God is always pointing us toward repentance by continuing to give us time, time to repent and time to produce.  We’re still here today so that till we die, Jesus can see to it that from the repentance he works in us come results, that there is fruit coming from our faith, that from hearts that are unspeakably grateful for grace come good works that are a delight to God, peaches, if you will, lots of them. 

What are you to trust?  That the Jesus who lives to plead for you above will keep on gardening, will himself cultivate repentance in your heart, will himself nurture your faith in him, will himself enable you to be extremely productive and will himself finally welcome you home.  He will!

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